In collaboration with the University of Southern California (USC) and the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), ERF is organizing two sessions at the conference on “Oil, Middle East, and the Global Economy,” that will take place at the USC, Los Angeles, California, on April 1-2, 2016.

As oil prices have dramatically declined reaching a level below $50 per barrel (Brent crude) in early January, a drop of 50 percent since their peak in mid-June 2014), a session is organized on “The Impact of the Fall in Oil Prices.” The sessions brings together experts to review the decline in oil prices within a global perspective, assess its implications for the Arab region and discuss the policy options to cope with this trend.

Another session is on “GCC Sovereign Wealth Funds” showcases ERF’s own work which calls under the research theme of natural resources and economic diversification. The purpose of this session is to review the links between SWF and fiscal policies and structural features of their home countries. In particular, the panel will address the relationship between fiscal policy objectives, fiscal rules and practice, and government saving through a SWF, and the macroeconomic impact of SWFs (with or without explicit fiscal rules) on the domestic economies of their home countries.